COURT OF APPEAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 96, 22 March 1929, Page 2

COURT OF APPEAL.

QUESTION OF LIABILITY. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, March 21. The-Court of Appeal was engaged today in Hearing the appeal of the Coastal Shipping Co., against the Wanganui Herald Newspaper Co., from the judgment of Mr Justice Smith delivered in January last. The facts briefly are that the appellant company in December, 1926,. received from the respondent company 63 rolls of paper newsprint to be carried and transported by the appellant company in the s.s. Kapiti from Welling- , ton to Wanganui. A loss of £320 occurred to the goods during the course of the voyage occasioned by the steamer springing a leak in her hull. This damage, it was admitted by both parties, was not due to any negligence or-fault of the appellant company or the builders of tne Kapiti. A -writ having been issued, it was ordered by the Court that the question of lawarising between the parties should be argued before the trial. Upon such argument it was held by Mr Justice Smith that the damage was not duo to any “danger of the sea” which, under the bill of lading, is an exception to the liabilities of shipowners, and further that the damage was due to the unseaworthiness of the steamer. From this decision the appeal is now brought.